In the Life of Jeff and Kira

I gave you an update on what Luke has been up to in the past few weeks and now it's time to fill you in on what is going on in the lives of his parents.

Jeff has been working hard at his job. Lots of people have quit lately so he has a lot of responsibility and they rely on him quite a bit. Also, at work they started a long-term ironman among the Gore employees. Anyone who wants to participate has to complete 112 miles biking, 26.2 miles running, and 2.4 miles swimming during the month of May.

Jeff started strong during his work trip to Sunnyvale, CA (May 4th-5th), knocking out all of the swimming one night in the hotel pool and doing a six mile run with a few of his colleagues. The six mile run almost killed him (Jeff is not a distance runner) and his foot was sore for days afterwards. But since then, he has finished the running (mostly on our elliptical) and he's gone on several bike rides - some alone and some with Luke and I - bringing his total remaining miles to just 15. He will easily finish those up in the next two days before the end of the month, earning himself a t-shirt and his name in some prize drawings.

Jeff is leaving for Sunnyvale again tomorrow, this time for a little longer (Tuesday-Friday). Luke and I will miss him, but we are going down to Gilbert to stay with Aunt Linda and swim in her pool, go to the park, visit the puppies at the pet store, and hang out with Grandma Lamb (and possibly Grandpa), who will be meeting us there on Wednesday, so we're excited.

As for what I have been up to in the past few weeks, I have had a few interesting, exciting, and/or terrible things transpire.

First, I got a lovely (and by lovely, I mean horrendous) surprise in the mail a while back: the ticket from my drive home from California in March. And guess what? It was a whopping $490! Yep. Not cool.

I couldn't stand to have all of that money come out of our family emergency fund so I am doing my best to pay it back myself. It turns out that's not so easy when your only income is $10 of "mad money" (essentially allowance) each month and about $5 per month from Swagbucks.com. So I started looking on Etsy.com for ideas of things I might be able to make and sell. I was surprised to see that so many people sell baked goods on that site and they seem to be doing alright for themselves. So I thought, what the heck? I'll give it a shot.I compiled a list of awesome recipes and started making about a dozen of each whenever I had the time or a good reason to (e.g. birthdays, Family Home Evening, Visiting Teaching, etc.) I took pictures of the cookies and saved a few of them in an airtight container to be sure they would still taste good after 3 days (the maximum time they will take to reach their recipients). A few of the recipes have flopped, but others have come out stupendously and have stood the test of time. Now I'm just hoping they will actually sell because between my saved up mad money and Swagbucks money, I've only made a $75 dent in that $490.

 Chocolate Chip

 Lemon Burst

 Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

 Toffee Chocolate Chip (They don't look like much, but they may be the best ones yet)

 Homemade Samoa Girl Scout Cookies

Homemade Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies (These didn't turn out quite like I hoped. They were soft in the middle instead of crunchy so they didn't make the cut, but aren't they pretty?)

And I still have a few more recipes to try.

Now for some good news: it is finally just about warm enough to go running in the mornings before Jeff leaves for work. I'm still a little wimpy because it's usually a little under 50 degrees out, but I really have to suck it up because I have been going up and down between needing to lose 5 pounds to needing to lose 10 pounds since January. And I made a deal with Jeff that if I get down to my goal weight in the next month, we get to go down to Phoenix and spend the day at a water park, while some kind soul watches Luke. Although Jeff doesn't seem the least bit upset by the extra baggage I've been carrying around, he loves this idea; we have both been dying to go to a water park for the longest time.

A scary, but ultimately good thing that happened this month: I inexplicably blacked out a couple of times. Both times, it happened in the middle of the night when I got up to get Luke and I scared poor Jeff to death. He said, I convulsed once or twice when I first blacked out and then for about 10 seconds, my eyes were open, but I was completely unresponsive. I don't remember any of it. I was completely out. The first time was two days before Mother's Day and the second time was almost two weeks later. After it happened a second time, we decided I had better get it checked out. The doctors checked my pulse, blood pressure, and several other things. They took my blood and even gave me an ECG (apparently pronounced EKG, at least that's what everyone called it, but in print it is ECG. Eh?) Everything they did not only came back normal, it all looked good. I was a picture of health. The only thing that was off, was my blood temperature. It was a little high, which could mean I was dehydrated, there was too much iron in my blood or a few other less likely things. I'm pretty certain there is not too much iron in my blood, but the day before I passed out the second time, I realized I had been drinking wayyy too little water and this had been going on for a really long time. When it's really cool in the apartment and outside and I spend most of my time at home with Luke, it's really easy to forget. I would even forget to drink after my runs sometimes because I would get distracted talking to Jeff when I came in the door. So apparently, over several weeks, I had become very dehydrated and I had no idea. I have been drinking a TON lately and I feel great (aside from the fact that I have to pee all the time). I am so grateful that it wasn't something more serious and that it was an easy fix. Moral of the story: drink plenty of water! Don't be dumb like me and get really sick just because you forgot to have a drink every now and then.

And lastly, exciting news: I am the new MiaMaids (14-15 year old girls) adviser in our ward! I just got called two weeks ago and I am so excited! There are 5 girls in my class and they are all awesome! I will get to teach 3 Sundays a month and I can't wait to be as cheesy, cutesy, and emotional as I please with all girls in the class. I also will get to help plan and attend the Wednesday night mutual activities. This is my ideal church calling so I'm really happy about it.